I suppose we all know TV-series that we would like to see released, but never seem to make it (copyright reasons are often quoted).

What I find even more annoying are TV-series that are released, but incompletely. 

Sometimes only the first season is released, like for According to Jim, Blossom (2 season set), Clarissa Explains It All, Growing Pains, Malcolm in the Middle, My Two Dads, One Day at a Time, Secret World of Alex Mack, Who's the Boss... and probably many more.

Other times the series fizzles out somewhere in the middle, like for Boy Meets Word, Happy Days, Family Ties, The Nanny, Fresh Prince, Sabrina the Teenage Witch...

And sometimes it stops just before the final season, like Mork & Mindy.

Now it may appear to make sense for a distributor to test the waters, or to stop for lack of interest. However, that would be a self-defeating scheme if many interested buyers would wait until the entire series is available.

Therefore my question in this poll. What are your purchasing habits? 

I buy the season sets as I am able too (usually can't when they are first released). While I do hate it when the remainder of a series don't seem like it is going to come out... I am usually happy that I at least have some of the series.

I would never buy TV series that start somewhere in the mdidle. I don't see the point of skipping the first few seasons anyway.

It's very annoying when they stop releasing in the middle of a series, but I can understand if the series doesn't sell at all, they stop releasing.

Another thing I really hate, is splitting seasons in 2 boxes to get more money from the buyers. If another locality has a complete set, I import.   

I do tend to wait until the price reaches 30€ or less. I really don't want to spend 50€ for a season anymore.

I do, but only if they are from the start of the show, and not single seasons from the end.

One that's annoying me is Law and Order. I've got S3 on order right now, but they have released a few from the start and a few from the end. Annoying.

Quoting Mithi:

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So I voted "when they are released" although technically I wait till the prises drop to reasonable ranges, but I do not necessarily wait for the complete series set.

cya, Mithi

That's what I meant, but I can't edit the poll (of course).

It's somewhat difficult to say ... I have a lot of anime, which are often television shows, and have not always waited for box sets to come in before acquiring the individual discs (these have 4 or 5 episodes usually, for those who don't buy anime releases), or the sets were scarce to begin with and are now out of print, or sometimes not all the seasons were brought over.  Sailor Moon is the best example there, since the uncut, Japanese language sets were very scarce and the last season of the show (Sailor Moon Stars) has never been brought over to the US (and likely never will).  I have the first two seasons, and would pick up the 3rd and 4th if I could find them reasonably priced.

But with US shows, I tend to go two ways.  Older shows I would wait for the complete set, but new shows/currently airing shows that I find interesting I pick up as they come out.  But I'm waiting until they are done to watch them.  I do that with anime as well, unless it is a show like Sailor Moon that has multiple seasons.  So I'm not sure where to vote. 

Quoting cvermeylen:

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Another thing I really hate, is splitting seasons in 2 boxes to get more money from the buyers.

I've yet to find or see a complete TV series on Blueray using their total capabilities-

The BD format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. Regular DVD holds only 4.7 GB  and even though the manufacturer  only stores  an hour or so on each disc,,  when they could in fact hold 3+ hours.. and BD could hold at least 10 hours .. in HD  but these older TV series are not redone in High def.. BUT they could be at least 'captured in standard def' and stored in this new optical disc .

Only complete TV-series for me. Reasons are:

Roswell, only Season 1 released here.
Heroes bought Season 1 part 1, didnt buy part 2 on the release date and soon it couldnt be found anywhere. Eventhough they were still selling the part 1. Desided i will not buy anymore from the serie untill i find the part 2 with a reasonable price. And wount buy incomplete series again.